Uncourteous motorists

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Intersection 'scrambles' are a cause for concern

A lot of money was spent making the intersection of Broadway and Susquehanna Street (Route 209) in Jim Thorpe safer. A "walk" sign was installed. There's a separate light allowing motorists coming down Broadway to have the right of way.

But is the intersection really safer?

Drivers traveling north on Route 209 – from the inner-borough bridge to Susquehanna Street – generally ignore giving the Broadway motorists the right of way. As a result, there's often a scramble at the intersection.

It's a miracle more accidents don't occur here. Anyone standing at the intersection can often hear angry motorists beeping horns from being cut off or see pedestrians scurrying across the street because of impatient drivers.

And it's not just happening on busy tourism weekends. It's occurring all the time – any day of the week, any time of the day.

We have no idea how often this intersection is patrolled, but loads of tickets could be given by police for failure to yield the right of way. Hopefully it won't take a serious accident – or a fatality – to bring action in order to make the intersection safer.

A similar situation exists at the Route 209 and 248 intersection. Some drivers do not take their turn, cutting off drivers coming at them.

Franklin Township police are often seen patrolling at this intersection, but when the police aren't there it's every driver for himself.

Driving courtesy is a foreign term to some individuals. Many motorists are nothing more than bullies when they get behind the wheel and these individuals deserve tickets for creating dangerous situations, such as at the two intersections mentioned.

We realize police departments are stretched thin with all sorts of duties, ranging from crime investigation to the handling of domestic and neighborhood disputes. It's important, though, that they make a presence periodically at some of these troublesome intersections and hand out tickets and possibly even publish the names of the inconsiderate motorists who get cited.

The other alternative would be to make motorists coming into an arrow light stop completely on a red light, when the arrow turns off. Unfortunately, this might lead to some nasty back-ups of traffic, which also would be counterproductive.

Therefore, ticketing and fining the traffic violators seems to be the only logical solution.